Being a long reliever is an inglorious job. You sit and sit and wait and wait and people make jokes about putting your face on the side of a milk carton. When the call finally comes, it is usually when your team is in dire straits (or not straits at all) and, after sitting for a week, you are expected to pitch multiple innings.

Everett Teaford was the original long man this year, sitting for seven days to start the season before being called upon to pitch four innings against Cleveland with his team down five runs. He waited eight more days before throwing three more innings and then was called upon to make a spot start last Friday.

Teaford did not have a good start on Friday: lasting just four innings. At that point, without a long man in his pen and due to the back and forth nature of that very entertaining contest, Ned Yost had to use five relievers to finish out the game. The five combined for 85 pitches and the Royals’ deep pen was suddenly in real trouble.

Probably the rain out on Saturday, which did nothing to help Kansas City’s building momentum, was a very good thing for the bullpen. That and the callup of Nathan Adcock to replace the ‘used up’ Everett Teaford on the roster.

I have to admit, when Adcock was summoned from Omaha to replace Teaford, I kind of thought it was an overreaction by the Royals. They have exhibited a tendency to panic at the first sign of stress on their bullpen arms. Yost, in particular, seems borderline paranoid at times about having a long man ready to go. Hey, the baseball men got it right this time.

Enter the bad Bruce Chen on Sunday. We see him from time to time – frankly, I remain continually surprised we don’t see him more often. When Chen doesn’t have it, balls get ripped around the ballpark. It happens to everyone not named Verlander and Halladay, and it happened to Chen on Sunday. His defense didn’t help him much, but Bruce did not help himself much, either.

With two outs in the third and six runs already in, Nate Adcock got the call.

The Royals were down 6-1 and, although they would make some runs at the Twins, this game was pretty much decided. There is no glory to be had here and, with five plus innings left to go, Yost had to be thinking he was going to grind through the pen again. With three games looming at Detroit, two of which will be started by Sanchez and Mendoza (combined will they reach double digits in innings pitched in the Motor City?), that is not a scenario where you have to burn up the likes of Collins, Coleman and Crow just to finish a blowout game. You can insert your Mitch Maier comment/joke here, by the way.

Instead of that, Adcock got Alexi Casilla to pop out to end the third. He worked around a one out walk in the fourth, wriggled out of a bases loaded jam in the fifth, faced the minimum in the sixth and was tagged for a run on two doubles in the seventh. After getting two groundouts to start the eighth, Adcock walked back to back hitters before getting Josh Williingham to fly out to end the inning.

It was not the prettiest of outings, as Adcock allowed eight baserunners in five and one-third innings, but he held the Twins to just one run over that time. Had his offensive mates managed to get more than four runs out of fourteen baserunners, Adcock might have gotten a little glory after all.

As it stood, though, Kansas City never seemed to really be in this game. That left Nate Adcock out on the mound with one mission: save the rest of the staff for games that the Royals might have a real chance to win and that is exactly what he did. The Royals enter Detroit tonight with a fully stocked and fresh bullpen, except for a long man.

There’s the rub. Adcock, by doing his job and pitching five innings on Sunday, likely got his ticket punched back to the minors so that the Royals can recall someone who will be available to throw early this week. Such is the life of the long man. Everett Teaford and Nate Adcock know the drill. They are the forgotten men: seldom needed, but expected to excel when duty calls and, if they pitch well enough, likely to be sent to the minors in exchange for a fresher arm.

Like Teaford’s performance on April 13th, we probably won’t give Adcock’s five innings of cleanup work yesterday much thought as the season progresses. However, when Ned Yost makes the slow walk to the mound tonight and on Tuesday night, you can thank Adcock for the fact that everyone is ready for duty.

xxx

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Comments

I think you are absolutely right on about the Royals sending Adcock back down for a fresher arm as the long man. This is where the process is – you have enough pitching talent that have options left – the net effect is an unlimited bullpen. The Royals should take advantage of that fact – keep rotating guys in and out. (I think there is some rule about a minimum stay in the minors when sent down – is that two weeks?)

As for Adcock specifically, I think he has proven with this outing, his four starts in Omaha and the Arizona Fall League success that he is a legit prospect – not the ‘rule 5- break in case of emergency’ guy from last year.

Written by Eric about 3 years ago.

I have no stats to back this, cause I am lazy and wouldn’t know where to look for them anyways, but to me it seems that whenever a situation like this weekend happens where the game gets postponed and that starter goes the next day, that starter gets killed. This is just based off of vague memories of other situations like this, however if the stats support this, wouldn’t it make more since to have started Luke yesterday in his normal spot, and start chen today or tomorrow? that way everyone can get back into whatever starting pitching routine they have? Again I could be crazy, as I have no stats to back this.

@Eric: Hochevar would have been pitching on short rest, since he swapped places with Sanchez a couple weeks ago. And Sanchez was ill over the weekend, so I don’t think there was anyone ready to start other than Chen.

For the last 5.1 innings I think we got a little taste of what it is like to play against the Royals in most games so far this season. As hard as the Twins were hitting the ball and as many baserunners as they were getting, I don’t know how they didn’t score more than 1.

Of course the Royals weren’t going to be beaten at their own game, so they did their best to strand as many runners as possible.

Chen definately got squeezed somewhat by a Larry Vanover strikezone which doesnt help a crafty leftie!

Nothing on Dyson? The love affair Yost has with the speedster is really starting to irk me especially as our Mitch was definately benefitting by an extended run in the side,IMO he cost us at least a couple of runs with his problem with the wall on a catchable ball from Valencia (?) in the 4th,Twins colour man Roy Smalley stated “that he lost the ball in the air” obviously hard to tell from a computer screen but the weak arm he showed seconds later was there for all to see.Move forward to the Twins 7th innings & on Doumits double according to Smalley again “That ball was in the air a long time,he ran & just stopped,Twins catch a break”……The most frustrating thing is that Dysons chop single in the ninth (0-3 up till then) will give Yost an excuse to prolong the agony of this Royals fan holding his breath when balls are hit to centre field whilst two better options in Maier & Bourgeois keep the bench warm!

The Dyson Syndrome is in an interesting stage – while Mitch was having some decent games, he’ll never be considered for a regular starting position in the outfield – that’s okay – he handles the fourth outfielder and mop-up pitcher role perfectly for this ballclub.

Dyson is either a fifth outfielder, career minor leaguer or a starting everyday major league centerfielder and leadoff guy. The problem is we don’t really know until he gets an extended look. With Cain out for a month, my hope is that this extended period will answer that question once and for all. While I think he is a career minor leaguer, give him his chance to show what he can do.

Written by zack daddy about 3 years ago.

I don’t have a prob with Dyson…unless him and Gets are both in the lineup. Ugh.

Written by Kyle about 3 years ago.

I hated to see Cain go down. But I was really excited to see Dyson in CF for a few games after hearing all about his defense and arm in AAA last year. He has done nothing to show that he deserves a shot any longer. Either go to Mitch until Cain gets back, or give another speedy “defense” first CF a chance.

D.Robinson is a perfect candidate. He has flashed a good glove and decent basestealing skills, but can’t keep a consistent stick going. He was a football player converted to an athletic CF, so why not give him a shot. he is on the 40 man and this might be the only chance he gets.

Written by The Melkman Goeth about 3 years ago.

Good points on Dyson. Ultimately, I agree with DanL that I’m okay with Yost giving him a shot at this point. Let’s see what we have in him.

That said, Dyson is doing himself no favors. He was billed as having plus-speed and a plus-glove. The speed is obviously there, but getting to a ball doesn’t do any good unless you make a play on it and he’s yet to do that.

Written by Larry T. about 3 years ago.

Excellent article, Mr. Fosler. I was unable to watch the game, so when I perused the box score I asked myself, “Adcock? Who?” Now I know who.

These piecemailing pen-and-Minors men are too often overlooked, and your words of thanks will make certain that the name Nathan Adcock is remembered.

Written by Big Lee about 3 years ago.

Kyle-Agree about Derrick Robinson. As other posters noted, the only good thing about Dyson playing is this should be to bed Moore’s fixation with this speedster. Maier should be getting more PT.

How long will be until Yost pushes for 14-man pitching staff?

Written by Ron about 3 years ago.

How do you carry 13 pitchers on your roster, and then run out of pitchers?

Of course, relievers who don’t pitch more than one inning a game help with that.